Worse Night
by FireyFreedom
Summary: Sequel to Bad Day.  Things get worse for all.  Irene and Alex have old enemies after them.  Yassen and K-unit witness the impossible...


"So if K-Unit is here to protect me, and you're here someone want to tell me what the supposed threat was?" Alex asked, looking between Yassen, to whom this was addressed and K-Unit, who shrugged.

"We weren't told anything" Fox said.

"What threat?"

Everyone eye Yassen like he was a rodent, "Then why were you here?" Wolf asked suspiciously.

Irene hummed and grinned at the assassin, who had the strangest feeling she knew more about why he was there than he did.

Alex raised an eyebrow looking between Irene and Yassen before raising his eyebrow at Irene. The girl nodded and walked over to him, wrapping an arm around his waist, causing raised eyebrows from everyone but Jack.

"I think we should check on our old friends my precious" Irene murmured in his ear.

"Didn't they agree to leave us alone after you talked with them?"

"Yes, but they may have forgotten, or they may have information for us."

Alex nodded to Irene, "Try to ask in a way that doesn't start another war please."

Irene nodded and disappeared up the stairs.

"Cub, what was that about?"

Alex raised an eyebrow at Wolf, "Old friends of ours, since no one else seems to know what's going on Irene thinks they might. Best part is they'll actually tell us what they know."

"Old friends?" Yassen asked, head spinning.

"Alex I was right." Irene came bounding back downstairs. "Hey Jack, Jack my love, do you have a friend's house you can stay at for the next say week?"

Alex's head snapped around to Irene, after a minute of staring at each other, Alex nodded "That's probably a good idea Jack."

"What's this about Alex?"

Irene answered Jack's question instead, "Nothing to do with MI6, we're probably over reacting, but better over reacting than under."

Jack nodded slowly, "Yeah I do, I'll just go pack?"

Alex and Irene nodded, when the American woman had disappeared up the stairs Irene turned to Alex and tilted her head at Yassen. "So are we staying put or going out?"

"Staying put."

The teens turned to look at Wolf. "And you think you can order me around why?" Irene asked. Alex just shook his head.

"Irene sweetheart, if we stay we have the added benefit of four SAS men helping."

"They also don't know the difference between friend and foe. Also that involves the government, which I hate."

"You hate the government only when it comes to these friends, who was it that has plans to be the President back in the States again?"

Irene nodded, "Alright point."

Yassen coughed, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "Oh right, we keeping him?"

Alex shrugged at Irene's inquiry. "Let's get Jack out of the house and then you can explain what our problem is exactly, we'll go from there."

Jack was promptly bundled off into a taxi, but as the car drove away a plain black Lexus pulled up outside the Rider home. Irene nudged Alex and tilted her head.

Alan Blunt and Tulip Jones stepped out of the car and walked over to Alex.

"What are you doing here?"

From the window Yassen, who'd been moved to a new seat, and K-unit noticed the way Irene tensed at Alex's cold tone. "That's pretty good reactions." Snake observed.

Irene had moved slightly behind and to the side of Alex, allowing him to deal with the two newcomers, but those watching from the window could see the hand that rested casually on Alex's back. Irene's eyes swept over the surrounding rooftops. Yassen noticed her gaze stop at various points, before she returned to the two figures.

"Perhaps we should discuss this inside, without your… friend."

Alan Blunt had noticed Irene's reaction to Alex's tone, but dismissed the obviously teenaged girl. That was his first mistake.

"Oh I might as well hear, it's not like K-unit and Yassen won't anyway."

The offhand comment stopped Blunt and Mrs. Jones in their tracks. "I beg your pardon."

Alex could feel the smirk on Irene's face, "Irene don't even open your mouth. Shall we go inside?"

Irene's mouth twitched in a smirk, but she followed the other three into the house. The group inside saw her lean forward to whisper in Alex's ear.

Inside everyone sat down at the kitchen table, except for Yassen who remained tied up nearby. Alex explained how everyone had managed to get there, glossing over how Yassen had ended up captured, and who Irene was, a question which was becoming ever more pressing in K-units eyes. Irene herself sat on the window sill, seeming to ignore the discussion.

"Alex you are in very grave danger."

Alex nodded to Mrs. Jones and motioned for her to continue.

"An American motorcycle gang called the Pagans has expressed an interest in seeing you disposed of. Apparently they've been linked to a few white supremacist organizations, who find you to be in their way. That is why K-unit was sent here, they will stay with you and your friend until we have dealt with this threat."

Alex nodded slowly and turned to Irene. "How much of that was accurate?"

"Most of it, actually. She's wrong about the motivation of course, but you knew that already."

"How worried should we be?"

"The Mongols still have our backs, and they're still above the Pagans."

"And the Hell's Angels?"

"That's why we might have a problem. They haven't said either way yet, nor have they declared neutrality."

Blunt coughed, interrupting Alex and Irene's chat. "Who are you?"

Irene rolled her eyes, "I'm Irene, and you look lost boy." Yassen and K-unit nearly choked on hearing the 15 year old call the head of MI6 boy. "You should have looked more deeply into Alex's past."

Raised eyebrows all around, with an extra eye roll form Alex, "You and I called in several favors to make sure that particular bit was buried very deeply precious, and they thought they didn't need to."

"It was still sloppy work."

Mrs. Jones bristled at Irene's careless tone, "I don't care who you are, or what history you and Alex have, but this is a serious matter young lady."

Alex felt the need to bang his head on the table. Irene was a Texan girl, she was a Texan girl that was good at debate. Irene was a Texas girl who was good in debate, had contacts in the most useful of places, didn't know what fear was, and who knew she was in the right. This was going to get ugly.

Irene stood up from her place at the window and slowly walked over towards Mrs. Jones' seat. Her high heeled boots made deliberate clicking noises in the silence of the room. She rested her hip against the table facing Mrs. Jones and put her palm on the table top, looking very casual.

"Let me tell you what serious is my dear. Serious is when the Hell's Angels decide that Alex really is a threat. Serious is when the entirety of the Pagan gang is chasing two 10 year old kids because said kids humiliated them. This is not serious. This is MI6 over reacting to what could easily and with the proper handling blow over."

Irene leaned in towards the older woman, smiling congenially. "Serious is when MI6 stoops to using a child to do their dirty work. Let me tell you what I know. I know that Alex Rider has worked for you. I know exactly how capable he is of being the best operative you will ever have. I know that if I drop a word in the right ears you will never get a chance at that because this story will be pasted on every newspaper from here to Hong Kong. Now let me tell you what's going to happen. You and stick in the mud over there are going to get up, and get out. You are going to call off the sniper team you've placed on the rooftops, and you are going to leave. Because Alex, K-unit, Yassen and I are perfectly capable of dealing with this without you attempting to insert your nose into Alex and mine's business.

Any questions?"

Tulip Jones exchanged an anxious glance with Alan Blunt. Meeting Irene's blue eyes was impossible. Mrs. Jones was not easily cowed, but something about that soft, barely there Texas accent, and those steady, unflinching blue eyes made her want to cringe. The fact that Alex was looking at her with hard brown eyes did nothing to help the situation.

"Acceptable. We'll leave this to K-unit then." Blunt broke in before things got any worse.

Irene nodded still staring at Mrs. Jones, "Remember the sniper team. I'm sure you can see yourself out."

Irene's eyes followed the two out of the door. As soon as the door closed behind them she twisted around, sitting on the table. "How much trouble am I in?"

Alex set his head on the table and laughed. "You couldn't just ignore her. You had to go pointing out everything and then threaten her."

"Technically I pointed out some stuff, threatened her and then pointed out more stuff, I lost my temper."

Irene shrugged, and turned a disarming grin on the rest of the room.

Wolf nodded to her. He was too much of a soldier to ever consider speaking to a commanding officer that way, but he recognized a leader when he saw one. He also recognized camaraderie when it slapped him in the face. Alex may not have said much during that encounter, but it was obvious that had he said a word, Irene would have backed down. And that awed Wolf a bit. After all, he was close to his team mates, but if he was ever angry nothing they said would get through to him.

Yassen watched Irene with cold eyes. That girl knew how to manipulate, she knew how to speak, she knew how to move. She was a politician, and Alex trusted her. Not to mention she threw around biker gangs like they were nothing. There was background there. Between her and Alex. But that wasn't important right now, what was important was why he had come to the Rider house in the first place.

Alex watched K-unit and Yassen's reactions to Irene. Wolf had the same look on his face Alex had seen many times before, the one that acknowledged Irene as a leader. Snake, Fox and Eagle al looked a little wary and awed. Yassen had approval in his eyes. Alex let out a breath, he hadn't realized just how much the assassin's reaction had worried him.

"I believe Scorpia may be involved in this as well."

Irene's eyes snapped to Yassen, "What the fuck is Scorpia?"

"A terrorist organization. They might have a reason for wanting me dead."

Irene glared at Alex, "Honestly, when you piss off important people you should tell me."

Alex nodded, "Sorry."

"For that matter why didn't you tell me when this all started?"

"The official Secrets act?"

"Fuck the official secrets act."

K-unit started to back away. They knew a personal discussion when one took place right in front of them. Yassen just looked away. Tied as he was that was all the privacy he could give the two teens.

Irene was now sitting directly in front of Alex, holding his face in her hands. "You should have told me bro. You should have told me so I could be there for you instead of prancing around in D.C."

Alex's hands came up to rest on hers. "I'm sorry. I was so worried, they were using Jack as a control to keep me, I just didn't want them to get to you."

Irene's lips quirked up, "I'm a big girl Hun; I can take care of myself. Once we're through with this dance, I'll deal with Jack's problems." Irene rested her forehead on Alex's, "But if you ever hide something like this from me again, so help me Buddha I will take your entrails, tie them into sailors knots in front of you, toss them in the midden heap, and then make you eat your own balls, are we clear?"

Alex laughed head butting her playfully, "And if you ever do anything I disapprove of I will make sure you get knocked up and have to keep the child."

K-unit, who had crept back to hear, looked at each other with total incomprehension.

"How were you planning on doing that dear one?"

"Drugging you?"

Irene laughed, "If people trained to do it couldn't manage it why do you think you will?"

"You trust me?"

"You also just put me on my guard."

Yassen smiled to himself. Those two were quite entertaining. Alex was the level headed one, which considering the boys temper was saying something, Irene was apparently the one who knew how to manipulate.

"Did you invoke Buddha just now?" Snake asked.

Irene nodded grinning.

"Isn't he the lets all get along type?"

"Yup, I like the irony."

"Interesting as that is, I thought you wanted to know why I was here." All eyes were back on Yassen. "Scorpia is part of this little dance as Irene put it, but its divided over its own involvement.

The Pagans and the groups that support them aren't well respected, and though Scorpia wants Alex dead, they also think this is over kill and unlikely to work."

"And they don't even know about his past" Irene muttered, motioning for Yassen to continue.

"I represent the half that is staying clear of this mess, and I came to warn Alex."

K-unit eyed the assassin warily; of course they didn't trust him. "Why should we believe you?"

"I trust him."

Irene glared at Alex while everyone else looked at him in shock. Alex glared back at her, eyes flicking momentarily towards the tied up assassin.

"Will someone please explain to me who the fuck Irene really is. The back story would be great as well." Eagle snapped.

"I'm Irene. Ian was a friend of my dad, and back when we were little Alex would come down to Texas every summer to hang out. Ian would take us on road trips around the U.S. and Alex and I found out about my love of long dark alleyways. Long complicated story short after I cursed out several gangs, and was my general loveable self with Alex backing me up with his Karate, we got on the good side of the second most notorious motorcycle gang, the Mongols."

K-Unit stared at her, "You cursed them out and they liked you?" Fox asked.

"Well she cursed them out and I might have gotten into a few fights with them."

"What Alex means is he won me a couple hundred dollars every time we hung out with the Mongols that summer. Anyway Ian took us down east, and the Mongols warned us about the third gang, the Pagans. Being over fond of trouble and alleyways we ended up stumbling onto one of their bars. While Ian went inside to get drunk Alex and I pranked their bikes."

"How?" Yassen asked, thinking that no ten year olds could cause that much havoc.

"Oh small things, pine cones in the exhaust, draining the gas tank, tying them together, slash the tires, dropped rocks in the engines, little stuff like that. Anyway we then proceeded to make a lot of noise to lure them out. WE had patches from the Mongol's and were wearing them. Well right off they saw what we'd done to the paint jobs and started yelling. We ran off and they tried to follow on their bikes. Needless to say that didn't turn out well for them.

It ignited a mini-gang war with the Hell's Angels pulling the two of us in for a chat while Ian talked to the cops. The Hell's Angels sided with us, and Ian grabbed Alex and took him back to England while I went back to Texas with every biker in the tri-county area looking out for me. The war died down without the authorities ever figuring out what caused it, the Hell's Angel's declared neutrality, and I called in some favors to have mine and Alex's part buried.

The Mongols kept hanging around me and Alex whenever we ventured into the territory, and I expanded contacts with them, staying clear of the organized crime part. Vital since I'm going into law and politics."

Yassen stared at Irene and Alex.

"What the fuck."

Wolf pretty much summed up K-unit's feelings right there. "You and Irene went off and started a gang war when you were 10?"

"Pretty much" Alex mumbled.

"Impressive."

Irene rolled her eyes at Yassen, "The assassin would be impressed."

"So explain what's really going on here." Eagle asked.

Alex looked to Irene who sighed, "Someone's been feeding shit to the Pagans re-kindling their interest in Alex, no one knows who, though I'm willing to bet on Scorpia. No mention of his MI6 connections, but that won't last long. Anyway, the Pagans would normally never consider something this far outside their territory, so there's outside support.

The Mongols opened a chapter here in London recently, so something must have tipped them off. I'd get in touch with them, but I would rather try to just sort this thing out peacefully."

K-Unit nodded as Alex stood up, "We need to secure the house, Pagans aren't trained, they're bikers after all but Scorpia doesn't mess around. K-unit will you see to that?"

K-unit nodded and Wolf turned to his team, issuing orders.

Alex turned to Yassen, "Are you staying?"

He received a nod in answer, "What would happen if we untie you?"

"I'd be able to help."

Irene tapped Alex on the shoulder once and tilted her head towards the hall, the two teens moved out of the kitchen together.

K-unit stopped for a moment, then shrugged and went back to work, Yassen strained to try and hear the discussion, but both kept their voices down. They came back in and without another word Irene stripped Yassen of the ropes binding him.

The assassin stood up and watched the teenage girl warily as she walked over to K-unit to listen to their plans.

"She's not happy?"

Alex shook his head, "She agreed with releasing you, but she wanted the two of us to sneak out and go to the Pagans ourselves."

"Wouldn't that be suicide?"

"No we could get the Mongols to back us up and she's right it would definitely be decided quicker."

"But?"

"I'm not sure, if Scorpia's involved things could get complicated. She's not used to Scorpia, I'm not either, but at least I know better than to sneak away from four SAS and one assassin to take them on with just the two of us."

Yassen nodded, "Smart move, she doesn't like working with us?"

Alex's lips moved into a sardonic smirk, "She is the definition of 'doesn't play well with others'."

Yassen shook his head, "And yet the two of you are… close"

Alex closed his eyes, hearing the hesitation over close. That was life when your closest friend was female and over fond of touching you. Yassen would also know how little Alex liked to be touched in general, so would K-unit, and everyone would be jumping to the same conclusions.

Not that Alex didn't sometimes wish they were correct conclusions. Irene was gorgeous, though she'd argue to hell and back she wasn't, and young as she was, she wore her sophistry about her like a cloak. They'd been together for the longest time, and if anyone was ever going to understand just what Alex had gone through it would be her. Her and the assassin standing next to him that is.

Yassen and Alex returned to the main group to listen to K-units plan to simply shut down the upper level. There was plenty of space on the ground floor, and it was easier to keep safe. Irene was talking to Wolf about her proficiency with guns, or lack thereof.

It surprised no one when Irene's phone rang and she put it on speaker.

"Hello."

"Is this Irene?" The voice on the other line was rough, biker through and through, but no one recognized it.

"Yes."

"You are with Alex Rider?"

Yassen frowned, suddenly noticing that Irene's last name never came up.

"When am I not?"

"Is he listening to us?"

Alex answered that for himself, "I am."

"Good, now we know that you are both within our reach."

"Did that seem threatening to you Alex, because I missed it?"

Alex shook his head, "If it was a threat, it was a clumsy one."

The voice on the line seemed vaguely amused, "There you two go starting on your head games. Wonderful handling of Mrs. Jones Irene, truly inspired. But then you always have had the talent to manipulate people."

"Am I supposed to be frightened that you saw that scene? The windows were open, it was no great feat."

"And being ousted as a manipulative bitch in front of your best friend isn't something to be worried about?"

Alex snorted, "Maybe it would be, if I wasn't already aware of it."

"I see. We were warned that the two of you have quite the bond. Unbreakable they say. NO mater we have no intention of breaking the bond, just killing the two of you."

"Are you using the royal 'we' or are you schizophrenic?" Irene's voice could have splintered wood.

"Does it matter?"

"Well yeah, it kinda does, what with my desire to live being in full force and all."

"Then why should I tell you?"

"You mean besides the fact we already know that you dick heads are working with Scorpia?"

There was a long moment of silence, and then the voice sounded like it was talking through gritted teeth, "Very clever."

"Very elementary"

Alex groaned, 'Not Sherlock again."

"Sherlock's bad ass, shut up."

Fox couldn't speak for the person on the phone, or anyone else really, but this was the most surreal conversation he'd heard in his life.

On one hand Alex and Irene talked like teenagers, on the other they sounded like professionals, and then Irene sounded like she was either on the gooood drugs, or needed to be.

"Interesting as this all is, we would like to get on with killing you two."

"And we would like to get on with our lives."

Irene rolled her eyes at Alex, "So shake hands and make friends now?"

The voice laughed, "I'm afraid not young lady, we could shake hands and then kill you if you like."

Irene twitched, she HATED being called young lady. Alex sighed, any chance of a peaceful resolution just went out the window.

"We can work with that. Shall we meet for tea and biscuits like civilized people?"

"I don't want him breaking the tea cups, we could all go out for coffee." Alex put in.

"Irish coffee?"

"No alcohol for you."

"Damn" Irene muttered.

The voice was definitely annoyed, "Or we could meet just outside, on the street perhaps?

Irene and Alex glanced at each other, and Alex took over the conversation while Irene moved to the window in the next room.

"Why would we want to do that?"

"Don't tell me you're afraid?"

"I would like to survive tonight, Meeting with you doesn't seem conducive to that."

Irene returned and murmured in Alex's ear, then moved over to Wolf and Yassen, motioning for them to lean down.

"Black car across the street, License-" Irene gave the license plate and Yassen stored it in his head to be used later.

"Alright, why don't you crawl out of the sewer, or wherever you're hiding and stand say, in the middle of the street, we'll come out and meet you." Irene joined the conversation, voice gratingly high pitched.

"Oh I don't think so."

The stalemate lasted for a few minutes before Alex spoke up. "Alright look, pick a time, we'll meet you at the corner down the block. There's good lighting there, we'll all be able to see."

Silence for a moment, and then "nine o'clock"

Without another word on either part, the connection was severed. Yassen sighed, they had an hour until nine.

The time was spent with Eagle brushing Irene up on her limited gun knowledge. NO one else was willing to teach her, Alex being busy getting in touch with the Mongol chapter in London, and everyone else slightly worried about her mental health.

Yassen ran the license plate through the data bases, determining that yes, it was from Scorpia.

At the five until nine everyone congregated back in the kitchen to go over what they were going to do.

Irene and Alex were going to head straight to the rendezvous point, K-unit and Yassen were going to follow them using the rooftops. Both Alex and Irene would be armed, though everyone, including Alex shot her looks when she termed it 'packing heat'.

As Irene and Alex stepped out the door, the girl turned to her longtime friend and smiled, albeit wistfully, "Just like old times, only last time neither one of us knew one end of a gun from the other."

Alex gave her a slight grin, "You aren't going to go all sappy on me now? Longing for the less complicated times."

Ah there was the insane grin he knew and loved, "Naw, this is way too much fun, besides, I like Yassen."

"Well you do have a habit of causing injury as a means to introduce yourself."

Irene elbowed him, laughing.

From the rooftops Yassen watched, telling himself he was not jealous.

At precisely nine, Irene and Alex melted from the shadows, not at all intimidated by the large bike, and biker leaning against it.

"Alex and Irene?"

"We sound like a married couple." Irene muttered.

She looked over the biker, whose voice matched with that on the telephone. Typical skin head, Pagan jeans jacket, really ugly tattoos, but the tattoos were either very old or very new, showing that he'd gotten out of the gang life for a while, and went to the trouble of trying to fit back in.

So probably a Scorpia agent, of at least vaguely trained by Scorpia to do this type of thing. The tats weren't specific to any one biker gang, except for a very small one on his hand, the standard AGFY that most Pagan's seemed to have. It'd be easy to remove.

"So you really are as ugly as you sound, good to know, now can we get on with the killing thing, I've got a show to watch in fifteen minutes."

K-unit stifled laughter at the bored, almost snobbish tone Irene had adopted. Alex was matching her air, slouched, seeming unconcerned, but Yassen could see the subtle tension that ran through both of them.

"Are you always this much of a bitch, or did you practice special?"

"She's always a bitch, it giver her her charm." Alex smiled pleasantly at the man, who seemed a little put off by how easily the two teens were taking it. They were supposed to be afraid, not bored.

"I see, well now that we're all here, shall we talk?"

Irene wanted to shout at the man, this was getting ridiculous. "Oh by all means talk away, while you're at it, attempt to kill us so we can foil whatever blindingly stupid plot you have going and go home and go to bed, some of us are jet lagged."

The biker's eye twitched, "Alright then."

A mass of red dots, indicative of snipers converged on the two teens. Irene yawned. K-unit and Yassen had planned for this already. Alex had practically known it was going to happen. The biker stared at the two, seeming unconcerned by being targeted for sniping.

"If you were going to snipe us you shouldn't have given us warning, or can't your gun men aim?" Alex remarked cuttingly.

"Honestly, criminals these days, nothing to 'em" Irene drawled, pulling on her Texas accent.

"Listen here young lady," Alex sighed, the biker shouldn't have said that, "You are going to regret that mouth of yours very soon." The biker smiled nastily, "We aren't aiming to kill you with this, just make life miserable, so you won't put up any fuss. Then the fun really begins, especially for you young lady."

Alex, Yassen and K-unit went rigid at his insinuations.

Irene rolled her eyes, "How thoroughly unoriginal. Torture and rape, while no doubt Scorpia has excellent torturers on hand, I do find it so boring when criminals like yourself are so banal."

"Bitch."

"Thank you," Irene hissed, voice suddenly venomous, "IN case you haven't noticed you baboon sired amoeba, Scorpia doesn't expect you to win this, you've already lost all your snipers," Which was true, thanks to K-unit and Yassen, "And if you think for a moment you scare me, you have about five seconds to realize I've seen far far worse than you.

You are a streak mark on the underpants of terrorist. You have to fake your way into a biker gang, just to get any kind of back up. And you think you can scare me? I had the wonderful opportunity to look Osama Bin Laden in the eye, you are an infected flea on an elephants ass compared to that."

Alex raised an eye brow at the Osama Bin Laden comment, but didn't ask, now wasn't the time, Irene was in full battle mode.

She advanced towards the now quaking biker. "You were going to try and rape me, I bet you barely even know how to fuck a girl, much less rape one. After all, what girl in her right mind would do anything with you? Judging from your bike you've got a small dick, and those tats are ugly fuckers, and you really aren't all that intimidating."

"Shut up you stupid bitch." Oh dear, now the biker had pulled a pistol.

"Bitch, is that really the best you can do you pox ridden mumble brained mumper of a midden heap."

The biker screamed and started shooting, just as Alex and Irene predicted, and they had already hit the ground, rolling forward. Alex grabbed the man, twisting him into a head lock while Irene gleefully snapped his wrist, freeing the pistol.

K-unit and Yassen descended to street level to stare at the two. "Irene, what exactly are you on?" Snake asked gently.

Irene threw her head back and laughed. Alex shook his head, smiling.

MI6 was called, the biker handed over, and K-unit dismissed. Yassen, Alex and Irene headed back to the house.

**Right I need to clear a few things up.**

**The Pagans, Mongols and Hell's Angels exist, and they are not people to mess with. I kept them within their territories until I had the Mongols and Pagans coming to London.**

**The Pagans are not affiliated with any white supremacist groups, though most members do wear racist paraphernalia.**

**Plus side… THIS WAS 14 PAGES LONG! LONGEST CHAPTER EVER!... **

**Reviews are love, please tell me what you think.**


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